GLH-T Alignment??

[TFMech]

What is the best street handling setup for the alignment on an omni. The alignment shop will do what ever I want with it. I just need to know what we need to put in the computer. We had it on the rack last weekend and found we needed to get shims for the back and put a fresh rack on it. I am going to take it back probably this weekend to have it setup.
My suspension is as follows:
LRE springs
monroe struts.....(they were cheap like as in free)
strut tower brace
poly bushings everywhere
stock sway bar.....upgradeing soon
4 wheel disk brakes
brand new ball joints and strut mounts....soon to have new rack and tie rods
17inch wheels
205/40ZR17 tires
8 point roll cage
going to make some sub frame connectors for it soon

I want it to handle and still have the tires last a little while like I dont want to be buying tires every couple months. Give me the best setup guys.

Thanks,
Kris

[saxhouse]

What's your intended application? I'm guessing it's more than a street machine with the role cage and sub frame connectors.....

For a road course, thatsbc gave me some great advice a couple of years ago. 2 degrees negative camber in the front for the track and 1 - 1.5 for the street and as much as you can manage with shims in the rear. An 1/8 inch of tow will help with acceleration when the car rises and braking when it lowers.

[TFMech]

It is mainly a street car but just because I spend so much time at the track anyway. It is pretty much an well rounded all around car. I mainly want it to handle well at speed. The whole goal when I built the car was to have it run low 13s in full street trim. Which it does that with out having the alingment set up for drag racing. I want it to handle better then I need it to go in a straight line fast. The 2.5 with 24psi of boost and the posi makes it go fast in a straight line. I want to make sure it can handle at 80-90

So 1.5 on the front is proably no problem. We have to put shims in the back anyway do I want it to be 1.5 in the back to or less or more. 1/8th inch of tow on the front how about the back do you want them toed in or out or straight?

[GLHNSLHT2]

If you can get Negative 1.5 in the front run negative 1.0 in the rear. This will make the car balanced. I wouldn't go more than -1.5 in the front for the street. It's just not needed and will start to wear the inner edge. Whatever you can get in the front go 1/2 degree less in the rear as far as camber. I've run these settings in all my FWD cars (mostly TD's) and it's perfect. Just watch the apex of the corners after getting it setup this way. The car wants to corner so hard you'll hit anything on the apex the 1st time out if you're not careful

If you have Poly bushings or better run ZERO toe. If you have stock bushings or worse than poly run just a hint of toe out. The wheels will pull in under acceleration with stock bushings and cornering. But with Poly they won't. Too much toe out will make the car darty at speed.

[TFMech]

so we will go -1.5 front camber -1 rear camber with the toe set at zero front. When we shim the back it is going to change the toe what should the toe be on the back tires zero??

[GLHNSLHT2]

depending on the shim yes the toe will change. Shims are adjustable or sized differently to get you the desired toe/camber you want.

[dodger]

I run -1.5 in the front and the rest is stock settings, i whish i did -2 for some more fun.

[dodger]

Hints for FWD Handling Improvements

Also if you look under the headliner or obve it there is only 1 crossmember runing across and there is room for 2 more on either side of the factory 1, this will stiffin up the ride some more for cheap.The holes are there you only need the brace from 2 other omnis.

[GLHNSLHT2]

hehe I dictated that page basically to be put on the net. Just ignore the stupid neon stuff. I didn't put that in there. The web master there couldn't get a TD to run so bailed on it and spent 5k on a SOHC pile.

+1 on the extra roof braces. The stock bolts from the braces you grab and radiator fan clips to screw the bolts into work great.

[Travis_k]

Other than alignment there are a couple of things on your setup id suggest changing. Having tried both, I think that rubber bushings at the rear of the control arms are superior to poly. Poly is good im some cases, but the way that particular busings moves it causes the suspension to bind up. Also, either get better struts, or put the stock springs back on. Better struts would be preferable, I really wished my charger had been stiffer in the front, but by the time i was able to figure out how to modify VW struts to fit it didnt run well enough anymore to be worth messing with it. You should be able to put bilstien MK2 volkswagen inserts in the stock housings without too much trouble so at least you will have good front struts.
Also, if you want to try a bigger swaybar for cheap, you should be able to get one from one of the bigger (daytona, etc) cars, and cut a bit off the ends and drill and tap them so you can screw in 91-94 nissan sentra end links and have a 1 1/8 or 1 1/4 inch bar for under $30 (not counting tools). Again, I was going to try this but I ended up selling my car before i actually did it, but I had the parts and it looked like it would work.

[glhs496]

That's cool you were able to spend time and shim the rear. Mine was decent stock and I never touched it. You must be tight with your alignment guy!

sorry to say, but the shocks make or break the handling of the car. You may not be too happy with the cheap-free monroes (unless they are old GTP's that aren't blown). So save up for some in the future.

Check the gallery section for pics of my car on a roadcourse.

If you do alot of highway driving and not much hard corning on the street then you could wear out the inner tread on your tires at 2.0 degrees neg camber.
If you drive the car hard with limited camber you just cook the outer portion of the tread.
I'm running -2.3 now. In the pics I was at -2.8

Go for the max camber, you'll need another alignment when you get your new strut's anyways

Zero toe with big power or the thing won't go straight.

Hope that helps.

[TFMech]

Struts are on the list of things that will be changed. 3.50 geared tranny and aftermarket fuel injection are comeing first. The monroes work for now I have a set of konis for the back that I need to have rebuilt as one blew out a while back and my friend had the monroes laying got me back going again. I dont really know what I am going to buy for the front. I figure out something for the front might go with inserts.

Thanks for all the tips

[GLHNSLHT2]

The stiffer the LCA bushings are the less camber you need to run.

[Travis_k]

Im 99% sure that you could run bilstien VW inserts in the l-body struts if you cut the top off of an L-body strut housing and weld the top of a vw one to it.

[glhs496]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Travis_k Im 99% sure that you could run bilstien VW inserts in the l-body struts if you cut the top off of an L-body strut housing and weld the top of a vw one to it.

It would be great if that worked. Suspension upgrades are getting scarce!